Morning journal and courier., 1887-02-08
A Man ON Mems Nervousness.

The Psychologists tell US that nervousness
is the peculiar attribute of women. May
not this be because it is usually men who
write the physiologies, so that women might
perhaps say, like the lions in Esop's fable,
that if no other party had been the painters
the case would be differents 1t would be
worth while to consult the wife of the musi-
cal enthusiast for instance, who has carried
his art to such point that it causes him and
everybody else more pain than pleasure, the
man who must have every door in the house
deadened, every carpet doubled, every visi-
tor seen by someone else before admittance,
and the children banished to regions inacces-
sible and inaudible. Paganini, the greatest
of violinists, is reported to have found exis-
tence an absolute burden because it held SO
many intolerable sounds; and many wo-
man has found her husband, even where IN
professional, claiming the privilege of Paga-
minis sensitiveness without his genius.
Again consider the extreme nervous condi
tion exhibited by some perfectly healthy men
when called upon to appear before the public
to 'make few remarks" or even introduce
a speaker.
The terrors of nervous prostration-that
calamity which seems new foe, but is real
1y only new name for an old one-haunt
men almost equally with women. IT men
hold out longer against its approaches, which
is doubtful they succumb almost more hope
1essly and need longer for cure. know
young men of fine physique who, having for
a year or two undertaken to combine too
many different anxieties-for instance a
bread-earning occupation and the study of
profession-have taken to their bed in utter
hopelessness and frequent tears and remained
there for years ''More pangs and fears than
wars of women have" were their penalty for
an over-taxation of the nervous system. The
fact that, the life insurance companies tell
us, women on the whole outlive men, seems
to indicate that their nerves, if more sensi-
tive than those of men, are more elastic and
offer better resistance to the wear and tear
of events; for we must remember that 1t is
not the great things of life which prove ex-
hausting but the small ones, because these
call out less in the way of resources to meet
them just as people take cold more readily
after a warm bath than after cold one for
want of reaction.
There exists in every household a short and
easy method of testing the comparative ner-
vousness of the sexes. Take the very sweet
est and most domestic of men, the most
home-loving and equable, and see if he can
have patience with the children, day in and
day out, as can wife much less gifted by
nature with these fine qualities. The chill
dren may be the sweetest ever bern, and
yet each will be pretty sure to pass through
stages in its development when its cross
questionings, its needless resistings, its
chronic deafnesses, its endless "What?' and
"Why2" and "Whom did you sayw will fur
nish ground. for practice for saintship. Not
that all mothers are equal to this task-far
from it; but when it comes to nerves, the aver
age mother takes all this trial and pressure
in a way that puts the average father to
shame. knew a shrewd woman who, when
ever her husband had given her lecture on
nervousness, used to eoatrive to have him
dress one or two of the children for school
on winters morning after a breakfast
slightly belated. The good man would fall
meekly into the trap, not clearly remember
ing the vastness of the labor-the adjustings
and the tyings and the buttonings; the leg
gings and the overdrawers and the arctic
shoes; the jacket, scarf, coat, gloves, nit
tens, wristers; the hat, cap or hood to be
pulled, pushed and tied in proper position;
the complete way in which all these things,
besides being put on, have to be mutually
made fast by strings, buttons and safety pins,
SO that the child thus dressed is a model of
compressed packing, and could, like well
packed barrel of china, be sent around the
world without injury. Calm must be the
spirit, high the purpose, of the father VINO
reaches the end of this complex task without
a word of impatience, while the wife whom
he calls nervous has long since taken off his
hands the other child assigned to him, and
has long since with deft hands dressed her
and given patient, final, all-compre-
hending twitch and the whole thing is done.
If you doubt whether men are, on the whole
and in their own way, as nervous women,
test them with getting the children ready for
school, and remember that their mother does
it twice day at least every day of her life.
Secretary Hine of the State board of edu-
cation has arranged for teachers meeting
at Simsbury on Friday next, at which Geo.
E Thompson of Canton, G. f. Carroll of
New Britain, g. D. Hine, ]. B. Mclean ana
A. P. Somes will be the instructors.